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Latest sexual predator brought up on 10 counts of Internet solicitation --- 42-year old Westland resident Craig Graff had solicited 4 officers online

The Wayne County Prosecutor on Saturday charged Westland resident Craig Graff, 42, with 10 counts of communicating with another over the Internet with intent to commit a crime, according to Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans. Graff was arrested on Thursday when he showed up expecting to meet a 13-year old girl for sex, but instead was met by the same sheriff’s deputies from whom he had been soliciting sex online. He is being held on $50,000 cash bond at the Wayne County Jail.

Graff had met the four deputies in a public online chat room, where each was posing as a teenage girl. Eventually, Graff lured each one into separate private chat rooms, where he expressed his intention to have sex with them. While chatting with one officer, the Graff would excuse himself for a few minutes, while he switched to another chat room with a different deputy, Evans said.

“It’s incredible that a 42-year old would be soliciting sex from not one, but four young girls, all of whom actually turned out to be sheriff’s deputies,” Evans said.

Graff was arrested outside Laurel Park Mall in Livonia. According to officers who made the arrest, Graff was expecting to pick up a girl in his truck and “show her how to have sex” while he played music from heavy metal rock group, AC/DC on the truck’s stereo.

The arrest was the third in the two weeks since Evans reestablished the Internet Unit, which was disbanded late last year by the previous administration.

Last week, 32-year old Christopher Hayes of Brighton was arraigned on three counts of communicating with another over the Internet with intent to commit a crime. The week prior, Farmington Hills resident Scott Sellinger, 30, was charged with one count of the same crime.

If convicted each could face up to 20 years in prison.

“Every day, parents should remind their children: Don’t chat with strangers,” Evans said.

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